GOP gets ready to say 'yes'

The narrative over the past 11 months is that House Republicans are the party of no: “no” to President Barack Obama, “no” to congressional Democrats and “no” to their own leaders.

But an amazing thing is about to happen at the close of one of the most politically contentious years in recent history: Republican leadership is about to say yes to Democrats. Yes to unemployment benefits, yes to Obama’s payroll tax holiday and yes on passing an unwieldy pile of year-end spending bills.

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It’s surprising on several levels. Republicans have voiced measured opposition to the payroll tax holiday. Many conservatives don’t believe long-term unemployment benefits encourage people to go back to work and nearly all of them think the current system is broken. Republicans also came into office vowing not to fund the government using massive omnibus bills.

Yet, if House GOP leadership has its way, all these measures will land on the president’s desk before year’s end.

It’s a mix of happenstance and sheer political calculation that has Republicans — including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) — supporting some slivers of Democrats’ priorities and perhaps looking for an escape hatch to end this brutal congressional session.

GOP leadership thinks its party wins by extending the payroll tax break, which Obama wanted as part of the 2010 deal to add another year to Bush tax cuts. Plus, Republicans are afraid of getting hammered if they let a tax break for middle-class Americans lapse. And they simply haven’t had the time — or political will — to overhaul the unemployment benefit apparatus. Plus, Republicans will exact more spending cuts as part of the deal.

It’s yet another illustration of the evolution of the House Republican majority. They’re conceding at year’s end that governing is messy and deals must be cut.

“I’ve seen a movement of the party,” said Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, “an increasing acceptance” of the payroll tax cut, he said.

Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said “those items are high on our agenda, as well.”

The question that some in the Capitol are asking is: How did we get here? Republicans started off the year passing an ambitious government funding measure, a scorched-earth plan that left no slice of government programs untouched.

Now they’ll simply be happy to extract their pound of flesh on the payroll tax by offsetting the cost with cuts elsewhere.

“What I have found in life is if you dodge your lumps, the lumps just keep getting bigger,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.). “And we started dodging our lump [when Republicans cut a deal with Democrats on government funding in February]. We started taking our lumps then, and from that point forward, our lumps have just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Asked about the year-end plans, Westmoreland said, “We haven’t seen what the lump is yet.”

Republicans could get a major victory as part of this fight. The House GOP is looking for systemic reforms to unemployment insurance as part of any extension. One option would shorten the length of the benefits from 99 weeks.